ARCHIVED: This Practice Note has been archived and is not maintained. The Lexis+® UK Immigration analysis of the Immigration Act 2014 provides a summary of the key practical implications of the Act, written by leading practitioners in the immigration field. The analysis covers the following topics, including

The Immigration Act 2016 (IA 2016) received Royal Assent on 12 May 2016. This Practice Note is a compilation of links to key materials relating to the Act. It includes links to the text of IA 2016, Explanatory notes and factsheets issued by the Home Office (as introduced with the Immigration Bill 2015‒2016) and commentary. The materials have been organised according to the nine parts of IA 2016. Commencement Under IA 2016, s 94(1), the sections of the Act come into force on such a day as the Secretary of State appoints by secondary legislation. The exceptions to this are IA 2016, s 94, the commencement provision, and IA 2016, s 61(3)–(5) (under IA 2016, s 94(3)), which came into force the day IA 2016 was passed, and IA 2016, s 85, which under IA 2016, s 94(4) came into force two months after IA 2016 was passed, ie 12 July 2016. The following commencement regulations have been made: • the Immigration Act 2016 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2016, SI 2016/603 (the Commencement No. 1 Regs) • the Immigration

A surcharge introduced to non-EEA migrants for applications made on or after 6 April 2015 where their total period of leave exceeds six months. The surcharge is a financial contribution to the NHS. Abbreviated to IHS.

Home Office Minister Tom Pursglove has indicated that an announcement on an extension to the Ukraine Visa Scheme can be expected in the next few months. He emphasised the importance of people having certainty and said 'we are committed to letting everybody know, at least 12 months ahead, what the future holds in terms of the arrangements for any extension of these visas'. His speech suggested the announcement will be for a grant of further limited leave to remain only, but arrangements should be made for university students to finish their studies.

A number of Immigration Rule changes from Statement of Changes HC 733 have come into force, including changes to the recruitment requirements for care workers and Skilled Worker salary thresholds, to the Ukraine Scheme, to the EU settlement scheme and various other changes.

Statements contained in House of Commons or Command Papers setting out the practice to be followed in the administration of the Immigration Act 1971 for regulating the entry into and stay in the United Kingdom of those who do not have the right of abode (including the period for which leave is given and the conditions attached in different circumstances).

A surcharge payable by the sponsoring employer when assigning a Certificate of Sponsorship to a non-EEA employee under Tier 2 of the Points-Based System. This charge cannot be paid by the employee.

The draft Immigration Skills Charge (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (‘2025 Regulations’) have been laid before Parliament. The 2025 Regulations will amend the Immigration Skills Charge Regulations 2017, SI 2017/499 to increase the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC) by 32%. This is a change that was previously announced in the Immigration White Paper. The ISC is a fee paid by employers sponsoring workers in the Skilled Worker and Senior or Specialist Worker routes. The Explanatory Memorandum to the draft Regulations states that the rise is the first since the charge was introduced in 2017, and is to take into account of inflation since then. It also states that ‘Money raised from the Immigration Skills Charge is transferred to the Consolidated Fund for use in funding skills training, and to the Devolved Governments’. The 2025 Regulations also add a number of Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes to the list of SOC 2020 codes which are exempt from payment. This is to reflect the move from using SOC 2010 codes to SOC 2020 codes in April 2024. The ISC increases, which take effect for Certificates of Sponsorship issued on and after 16 December 2025, are set out below.

A policy document released on 19 December 2018 by the government setting out the shape of UK Immigration post-Brexit.

The White Paper ‘Restoring control over the immigration system’ was published on 12 May 2025, and sets out a large number of significant changes to numerous areas of immigration policy. Many of these reflect the Labour government’s stated aim to reduce net migration, including by overhauling skills policy. This Practice Note summarises the key proposed changes for business immigration practitioners, provides comment on what their implications might be, and tracks their implementation on an ongoing basis. This includes in relation to the ‘Earned Settlement’ proposals. It also includes links to relevant resources. Resources Resource type Item News and News Analysis Immigration White Paper heralds significant changes to UK immigration system, LNB News 12/05/2025 44 Immigration White Paper—some further indications on timing, and who settlement reforms could affect, LNB News 13/05/2025 8 What can sponsors and Skilled Workers do to address the White Paper proposals, Ben Maitland, Senior Associate, Vanessa Ganguin Immigration Law Immigration reform plan creates new headaches for employers (Law360) MAC review on IT and Engineering cautions on skills approach,

The government has published its long-anticipated White Paper on legal migration ‘Restoring Control over the Immigration system’, which announces some very significant changes across the immigration system, with the state aim of reducing net migration and ‘bringing back control’. In the work sphere this includes raising the skill level for Skilled Worker back to the Tier 2 graduate level and making all ‘Points-Based System’ routes ten-year routes to settlement (with a new ‘points-based’ approach for reducing this based on ‘contributions to the economy and society’). There are various measures aimed at reducing the level of work immigration generally, with strategies for forcing employers to train and invest in the domestic labour market rather than ‘rely on’ overseas workers. The paper also announces wide-ranging reforms to study routes, English language requirements, ‘earned’ settlement/citizenship, and enforcement. It also provides that a new family immigration policy will be set out at the end of the year (including extending financial requirements to other dependant visas), and that new legislation will be brought forward in an attempt to (re)codify Article 8/exceptional circumstances assessments. The exact timing of much of when this will be implemented via Immigration Rules/legislation is uncertain, although some measures will be consulted on further. Details of the intended changes to work, study, English language requirements, settlement and citizenship and family migration are set out below. Sophie Barrett-Brown, Senior Partner and Head of UK Practice at Laura Devine Immigration and Katie Newbury, Partner at Kingsley Napley provide their comments.

Although the Immigration White Paper published on 12 May 2025 gave few indications on the timing of the planned/proposed measures, a press release issued on the same day stated that the policies outlined in it ‘will be delivered over the course of this Parliament to strengthen the UK’s immigration system, with the first changes set to be introduced in the coming weeks’. It separately added that the government ‘will publish further reforms to the asylum system and border security later this summer, building on measures in the Border Security, Asylum and Immigration Bill currently progressing through Parliament’. Another partial clarification relates to whether the proposed reform to extend the standard time taken to settlement to ten years in Points-Based System routes (with the possibility of a reduction on time using a points-based approach) will apply to persons who already have leave in relevant routes. A technical annex published alongside the White Paper, which attempted to model the possible impact on numbers of the changes, stated that ‘a number of those currently in the UK are likely to leave due to it taking longer to gain settled status’. It went on ‘The final impact will depend on how the policy is implemented (e.g. which cohorts of migrants are able to reduce the qualifying period through Points-Based contributions) and the implementation date of the policy’. These might indicate that the current intention would be not to apply transitional arrangements which would exempt those with leave in the relevant routes prior to the change (or at least that this is a possibility, prior to the consultation). This seemed to be confirmed in a response to a question by the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper MP in the House of Commons, where she said: ‘My hon. Friend is right to say that there are people working in all kinds of jobs across the country and contributing to our economy and to our communities who have travelled here from all over the world, and that is hugely important. We will set out further details of the earned settlement and citizenship reforms later this year, and we will consult on them. There will be plenty of opportunity for people to comment on and consider the detail, but it is important that we extend the sense of contributions and the points-based system to those reforms as well. We have also said that we will maintain the current five-year route for those who have come on a dependant visa or a family visa, as part of maintaining families.’